BATE Borisov 0-1 Chelsea: Five things learned as Giroud gets off the mark

BATE Borisov 0-1 Chelsea: Five things learned as Giroud gets off the mark

In a surprisingly competitive match, Chelsea overcame BATE 0-1. The win gave Chelsea 12 points, a perfect four wins from four, and put them into the next round of […]The post BATE Borisov 0-1 Chelsea: Five things learned as Giroud gets off the mark appeared first on Squawka News.

In a surprisingly competitive match, Chelsea overcame BATE 0-1.
The win gave Chelsea 12 points, a perfect four wins from four, and put them into the next round of the Europa League and meant that Maurizio Sarri has now gone 16 competitive games as Chelsea boss without defeat. What did we learn"

1. The complacency of quality
The overall sensation of Chelsea’s win over BATE was that of disappointment. Yes, Chelsea won, but they really had to work for it. The team’s attitude was off from the first minute; the complacency in their minds was clear. And in many ways this is understandable, Chelsea are wholly superior to BATE and have a big game against Everton at the weekend.

This is why the Chelsea XI, which notably included star men Eden Hazard and Jorginho, was a problem. When you play your superstars in a cup game that the side doesn’t truly have an urgent need to win, they will not play with the intense drive and desire they should do.
Sure, Chelsea were better than BATE and when they flexed their muscles they showed that, but by and large BATE found it easy to outdo the Chelsea effort levels and get a foothold in the match. The Belorussian club had the better chances and even hit the woodwork in stoppage time. It was the kind of night where Chelsea playing a less-talented side would have paid dividends as the players would have worked that much harder rather than looking to save themselves for the weekend.
2. Giroud, at last!

Olivier Giroud won the World Cup without scoring a single goal in the summer. That’s pretty impressive for a striker. Since then, in competitive matches for Chelsea, Olivier Giroud had gone 794 minutes of football without scoring a single goal. That is a colossal amount of time; you could watch The Godfather and The Godfather part II both. Twice.
But the handsome Frenchman, who admitted post-match that fatigue from the World Cup perhaps left him lacking “a little efficiency,” showed a nice dose of it against BATE. Emerson sent in a fine cross and Giroud rose elegantly at the near-post, nodding the ball down and into the back of the net. It was a deft touch that owed a little bit to some soft goalkeeping, but much like Alvaro Morata against Vidi in the same competition, it could be exactly what Giroud needs to kick-start his season.
3. Loftus-weak

Ruben Loftus-Cheek battered a hat-trick past BATE at Stamford Bridge. In Borisov, however, he had a much rougher go of things. This is no surprise, it’s obviously harder playing away than at home. But the most frustrating thing for the Englishman must have been how he was removed for Mateo Kovacic just past the hour mark.
Instead of removing (and pro...

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